January 5, 2009

I don't read enough different blogs, so I'm looking at PC Magazine's 100 favorite blogs. I've clicked through to more than half of them, and I'm going to blogroll all the ones that seem worth revisiting. Later, I will have to prune the blogroll, which, to tell you the truth, currently includes a lot of blogs I haven't read in months. I want some bright, snappy blogs that are worth reading every day.

What blogs — beyond those written by you and your loved ones — do you really like reading every day?

MORE: I enjoyed Sorry I Missed Your Party and Ugly Overload, but I don't see the need to ever go back. I feel bad about myself after reading Sexy People and — especially — for laughing at Christine. Actually, now, I'm starting to feel a weird new love for humanity, as humanity tries to look good and fails. I blogrolled it! And I'm blogrolling Passive-Aggressive Notes, Oddee, Life Hackery, Jezebel, Indexed, Got Medieval, and The Comics Curmedgeon ("This panel shows a way that Snuffy Smith could become relevant to modern audiences: by highlighting the health dangers of meth addiction, which is so sadly prevalent in America’s rural suspender-wearing communities"). Oh, hell, my resistance is broken down. I'll blogroll Sorry I Missed Your Party and Ugly Overload.

60 comments:

I find it an odd convention that so few bloggers actually comment *at* the blog they've so obviously read. Instead, they tend to take the argument back to their own blog.It seems inconsiderate to readers.

I mostly only comment on other blogs if I know the person in real life or if they are talking about me and I want to correct something. Generally, it's better for me to post and link, because it sends them readers.

Ms. A., I read your blog, John Scalzi's blog "Whatever," Dr. Helen's, Instapundit, and Power Pop. The last blog, from Steve Simmels who seems to delight in being angry with you, is mostly about music. I am the token conservative there, and they are all quite nice to me.

Besides the "majors", I read Victoria's blog Sundries. I also "read" Trooper York, but only for the articles. :)

I used to read and comment a lot on Lou Minatti--that guy is so level headed. He went through some personal crises and nuked most of his blog. I still read him though. For the low-down on California politics and humor, I recommend "Exurban Nation"

"I'm a public relations consultant in NYC. From time to time I will write favorable posts about my clients because I believe in my clients and their causes. At that time, I will disclose any relationship with the client. Consider this statement as adequate disclosure for all my possible conflicts of interest now and in the future."

-- From her disclaimer. She writes a lot about local New York politics from right-of-center perspective (yes, such perspectives exist) and about national politics from the perspective of someone who actually does the legwork. She was born in Russia, blogs about hip-hop, and is somewhat obsessed with Guns 'n Roses.

Also, don't play poker with her unless you're decent at it and fairly deep stacked.

If you want bright and snappy, I suggest Simple Justice, at blog.simplejustice.us, which as the winner of the ABA's Best Crime Blog seems a glaring omission from your blogroll. Warning though: the blog's proprietor, Scott Greenfield, can be a real dick.

For a whole different flavor, I suggest Who Is Ioz?, at whoisioz.blogspot.com. The guy's smart and gay as hell, entertaining and witty, and pretty much an anarchist. He has no use for "progs." He may broaden your horizons.

I am too impatient to import old favorites into new computers and it's fun sometimes to log onto an old system and see who I had to read a decade ago (Sully) that didn't make it to the next computer. Four years ago Malkin was a daily read, but no longer, although Hot Air is.

I tried Neil Gaiman, one of PC Mag's 100 blogs, for a while because I am a major fan, but I found I just wasn't interested in the daily details about his prolific production.

I scan a number of sewing blogs through the week (wherein, fwiw, consensus is that the Aussie version of Project Runway is superior to the American version - more about style, less about personality.)

What's Alan Watching I enjoy more than their recommended Ken Levine. Levine gets more into the the art of writing for TV, which is less interesting to me than smart opinions about what has made it to the TV screen. It helps that my tastes correspond well to Sepinwall's.

I also have a sub-file of Blogs, titled Vortex, that I look at regularly, Amba's chief among them.

No, I do not now have a hankering for mead, having just finished a rather large glass thereof. Spiced apple mead. Home brewed.

Assuming a familiarity with basic brewing, here's the recipe:

7 gallons clear apple juice (e.g. Mussleman's)

7 quarts of honey. Wildflower is best, and we have our own hives. Use a bit less if you prefer a slightly 'dry' brew as the 7 quarts will give you about 29 Brix.

7 sticks of cinnamon, boiled, added to the primary with their water.

21 cloves, included with cinnamon.

Champagne yeast, which can stand higher alcohol than other strains. You'll probably want to use yeast nutrients, as honey doesn't have enough to carry a good fermentation all on its own.

Ferment towards near dryness, then rack every third day for two weeks to settle solids. Leave minimal head room to reduce airborne contamination.

Bottle it. Let it settle for two or three weeks, and decant as needed, taking care to avoid including residue. Either that or filter it ahead of bottling.

This recipe will start at about 15-16 pa (potential alcohol) depending on the apple juice and should finish around 1 pa. Net of almost 15 ABV, so respect it.

I've also done mead "sherry," again using wildflower honey, with a complex fruit juice like pomegranate or cranberry for acidity.

Basically, go with 8 to 10 quarts of honey (depending on whether you like dry sherry, sweet, or medium) and 4 quarts of juice, diluted to about 7 1/2 or 8 gallons. Again, use champagne yeast and nutrients.

At your third rack, add about a gallon of cheap brandy (like E&J), which will really drive sediment down -- and the ABV up. Decant and bottle about 3 months ahead of use ... if you can wait that long.

I've got 98 blogs and news sources I peruse daily through Google Reader. I just scroll through and peruse the subject lines for most of them, and there are a handful I make a point of stopping and actually reading most every day. That's why Twitter seems so much like a cross between Google Reader and Facebook.

I could fake being a Republican for a chance at Robin Meade. I can talk intelligently about Democrats hair, blow jobs, and Chappaquiddick. And if she's wearing that blue sailor outfit there's little I can think of that I couldn't be.

It's ok, Ann. I laughed at Christine too. It's a little weird, right? The impulse is to laugh, followed immediately by the feeling that you shouldn't be laughing. And then laughing some more. And then feeling bad about it.

The picture of the cousins is also funny. No need to feel bad about laughing at that one.

I mostly only comment on other blogs if I know the person in real life or if they are talking about me and I want to correct something. Generally, it's better for me to post and link, because it sends them readers.

Thanks, and that does make sense for smaller blogs or observations about a blog post. Or for what you are discussing in this post (and I went kinda off topic).

I don't think AS or GG have ever commented here.

It's just that this amuses me so. You would think GG doesn't travel around the blogosphere because he leaves no trace behind him. As if it is beneath him (or AS, for that matter) to be a mere blog commenter.I like Tom Maguire's way. He comments on the blog he's reading, then comes back to his blog to elaborate.

I read Althouse and Instapundit regularly, Sippican Cottage and Meghan McArdle on occasion, and also hit Carl Bialik's two Wall Street Journal blogs on a regular basis.

These last two are The Daily Fix which links to Sports Columns and The Numbers Guy which links to interesting numbers-based stories (and, incidentally, a lot of sports columns).

I end up reading many of the New York Times blogs because I read the online Times regularly. My two favorites are probably City Room which is highly eclectic and Christoph Nieman's beautiful, but very intermittent Abstract City.

ShrinkwrappedTypical Sentence: "At the same time as you must give up your fantasy of eternal gratification from the societal breast, one must also more clearly engage and tolerate the limitations of reality."

Mish'sTypical Sentence: "Take a good look at AIG. There is no reason for the government to be pouring over a hundred billion dollars to prop up this sick puppy."

In From the ColdTypical Sentence: "The XXXI Corps is the defensive formation assigned to take the brunt of an Indian armored assault," said Ravi Rikhye, the editor of Orbat.com, a website that tracks the order of battle for militaries throughout the world."

Big PictureTypical Sentence: “The Efficient Market Hypothesis, homo economicus, the deification of markets, all need an open public review and a good thrashing."

The WingerTypical Sentence: "His influence has had a profound impact on my perspective as a dancer, every detail from a simple reaction in the party scene or how to kneel in flowers was significant."

Information DisseminationTypical Sentence: "No single military technology introduced in 2008 has the potential to radically reform an entire military function like the X-47B has to reform Carrier aviation."

American Poetry AllianceTypical Sentence: "I read as child all books by American Poet Association—books of B. Dalton Smith, poet of civil War—books of Madeline McCarthy, western cow poetess—books of Shabazz Fish, proud black man of Chicago steel mill hammer ring of truth—and, best of all, books of Franklin Provato, the San Fran funk-up king of speed jaZz, man."

Today's InspirationTypical Sentence: "I wasn't able to locate the tire ad Blake spoke of, but this 1947 Revere ad by Dorne serves well enough as an example of Dorne's work from around that time."

MomfidenceTypical Sentence: "I have myself breastfed on planes and trains, in stores and Sunday School classes, and once at a business meeting (I was especially discreet!). The part I don't get is why someone would take a picture of it."

I've mostly been purging blogs, not adding them, from my reader and from bookmarks for the past year (I think I'm down to about 10% of the peak.) It's quite rare for me to add one these days. One of the very, very few I have added this year is Sweet Juniper!, which I've been enjoying quite a bit recently. Its style, subject, length and whatnot varies. It may not be for everyone, but I like it and look forward to it.

I don't have a lot of blogs I read regularly. Most of the ones I do have been mentioned, as well as many of the ones I visit irregularly.

One I haven't seen mentioned is Protein Wisdom, which I like when Goldstein is actually writing for it. (I also like Darleen Click on that site.) Also Hector's "Rain in the Doorway", which he posts so infrequently that I forget about him till he pops up in the comments.

I always enjoy blakes The Bit Maelstrom for the best movie reviews you are going to find out there. Sire Says is a lot of fun for cultural news and stuff from the land of fruits and nuts. Amba's blog is always enlightening but a little too serious for me. Ron and Victoria both have great good natured blogs with a lot of interesting stuff. Pastor Jeff often posts stuff that gets me to think. RC Ocean has the best civil war stuff bar none. Synova's blog is also a new one that I have been enjoying. Freeman Hunt's blog is another I check out all the time. And dbp's blog is where I learn about running from the prespective of someone who actually excercises. The freak. Finally Hoosier Daddy participates in a blog that is a great read. In general if you click on the blog profile of some of the commenters you will get to their blog. It is great fun to visit them at their home base away from here and get a better idea of their perspective on life. I makes their comments on Althouse all the more interesting.

Thanks for that! In 4 years, I have never checked out any of the regulars blogs.

Ann,

I too look constantly at new blogs. In fact, I go through your blog roll at least 4 times a year looking for "interesting". Though I view between 3 and 400 new blogs each month, rarely do I add any to my daily list.

My Daily Reads, honed over 4 years, in order of check-in:

Althouse

The Daily Fix. Wall Street Journal Sports Round - up - makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about with all the jocks.

It isn't a blog, but I like quickly refreshing the "everyone" public timeline from twitter.

It only takes a little time before something (that can vary from the NYT to someone wondering why their blog is never read--and everything in between) interesting pops up and I'll click the link for more.

[This is how I recently stumbled on AJGaza. Will wars of the future be live-twittered by lots of folks on both sides (and those in the middle?) I think that would be OK, as long as it doesn't become "entertainment" for gawkers.]

insta-heh 1st thing, then althouse, then steve h. graham at tools of renewal(formerly hog on ice), then hot air, right wing news, and day by day. that's every day, without fail.

glenn is ok for a lawyer and college professor, plus he's the fountainhead. ann is just charming or i would never have hung around every day, much less stolen her layout. though althouse, i found the huffington toast, and then on to steve graham's hog on ice.

watching steve grow the past few years has been compelling and time well spent. thank you, ann althouse!

"Try bloglines or Google reader, and subscribe to things iike "right to privacy -abortion" or whatever."

I've used bloglines for years, but I don't like the way it looks. I use Google reader occasionally, but I don't like to read that way. I have a lot of Google alerts. But mainly, I like to have a collection of blogs that I actually go to and read. I like to click from my blogroll too. For one thing, when I do that, the blogger can see that he/she got traffic from my blog and might come over and read me, which would be nice.

It's not every day that I see a reference to Snuffy Smith and get to name-drop that Billy Debeck and my family were best friends. Not that anyone remembers what I'm talking about. I love aracana. Barney Google lives!